RESEARCH General Arts

TRAVEL & TOURISM
Students getting hands-on experience designing unique tours

Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu

2/1/2002

Photo by Bill Wiegand Bruce Wicks, who directs the UI's Office of Recreation and Tourism Development, is developing courses that provide students hands-on experience needed in the 21st century.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — For students enrolled in University of Illinois professor Bruce Wicks' leisure studies seminars, just learning about tourism can be an adventure.

Last semester, Wicks launched a pilot course, "Dynamics of Tourism," which teamed UI students with students at South Korea's University of Dongguk in Kyongju. The UI-based students used online resources to plan tours of the United States of eight to 10 days for the Korean students, who are training to work as guides in English-speaking countries. The mock tour packages included some of the usual U.S. tourist destinations, such as Las Vegas and Disneyland, but also incorporated some quirkier itineraries. Among them, white-river rafting expeditions in Colorado and a tour of Chicago blues-music venues.

"We're going to do it again next fall," said Wicks, who hopes the model also can be adapted for collaborations with colleagues and students in other countries. "We had a few problems, mostly caused by the time lag and language barriers, but the concept is sound, so we can make it work."

Wicks, who directs the UI's Office of Recreation and Tourism Development, said the course provided the kind of hands-on experience tourism professionals need to compete and succeed in the 21st century. "If you're dealing with tourism today, there are four components that have to be there: You've got to be international, you've got to be discussing cultural differences, you need to apply technology, and you've got to be collaborative. This course has all four of the elements required to be cutting edge."

Meanwhile, Wicks and his current students are exploring even more outside-of-the-box approaches to learning in two new undergraduate seminars.

Students in Wicks' tourism development course are tackling a project on "African American heritage tourism," exploring the tourism potential of sites in East St. Louis and 14 nearby counties. The class is contributing to the initial development phase of a three-year plan funded by the Illinois Bureau of Tourism and led by Ann Walker of the East St. Louis-based group "Trails and Legacies."

"Students are looking at the role of African Americans in that part of the state," Wicks said, from pivotal figures and places in the underground railroad movement to more contemporary history-makers such as jazzman Miles Davis and track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Students are focusing on tourism development, infrastructure, site development and promotion, and "will be spending a lot of time assessing resources … things like figuring out how to get to the sites from the highway."

In the second new seminar, "Experiencing Meaningful Travel," 30 freshmen are examining ways in which travel can change a person’s life forever. The idea for the course came to Wicks after reading Jeffrey Kottler's book "Travel That Can Change Your Life." Each student contributed $200 to fund a group trip. The students will choose the destination, plan the itinerary and keep a travel diary. They also are creating Web pages and surveying family members about their tourism history.